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Monday, September 11, 2017

Well, I am certainly getting lazy when it comes to writing here, sorry. Things around here have gotten into a nice routine as of late. Schooling has reached a comfortable rhythm and I'm working on all sorts of random things like I picked up some large day of the dead skulls to paint for our walls. It's been slow going on those, but it's something different to do and that's what I wanted them for.

I've had a couple of small orders in the past week that have gotten me tatting a bit and of course work on the Armenian lace is ongoing and very close to hitting the 4 foot across mark. I've also been hard at work editing my novel. It is a glacially slow process though and I'm barely a third of the way through it. I missed the pure writing process so I've already started writing another thing. I'm less certain about how long this one might end up though. It could be a short story or a novel or somewhere in between. Since I achieved my first goal of simply writing a book, everything else just feels like cream at this point.

I may actually have another art tatting project soon. It's a little early to say for certain, but if it does pan out, I should have more to write about in the near future. Otherwise it's now schooling, painting, editing, writing and knotting for now.

Tuesday, August 29, 2017

I've been pretty busy lately getting ready for the beginning of the homeschooling year that started yesterday. There were of course all sorts of issues that needed to be sorted out before we started. I'm sure we'll have a few more bumps before we really get into the groove of things, but so far so good.

I've done a lot of work on the Armenian lace piece. It's just a couple of inches shy of being 4 feet across now. No, I'm not stopping anytime soon even though it's now large enough to be a bit unwieldy on my lap. I'm going for ridiculously large now.

Yesterday, I was fortunate enough to get a nice sized order that needed a few pieces made up before I could ship it. Since we're back to schooling that has to wait until after classes are wrapped which means I still have a bit more work to do on them before I can get them in the mail. There are also a couple of pieces that I will want to remake for the shop even though sales are coming maybe every other week or so at this point, save for pattern orders that are a bit more frequent.

Last bit of news is that I finished writing the first draft of the novel I've been working on much of the summer. It topped out at over 82,000 words. There's still a ton of work that I'll need to do before it sees the light of day. There's editing and proofreading and probably more editing. Since I'm back to work so to speak, it may be quite a while before I get these processes done, but for now I'm reveling in the fact that I did indeed write a book.

Tuesday, August 15, 2017

I've not got much to share this week. I've been working slowly on the Armenian lace, but most of my time has been spent reading and writing. I'm at 66,000 words now so if I keep working at the same speed I should be done with the first draft of the book by the end of the month. Of course I really have no idea where to go from that point. I made a point of not thinking beyond the actual writing of the thing, so I don't have a clue what might or might not happen with it after I edit and proofread it. I guess I'll have to do some research at that point.

That's not why I popped by though. It's my birthday, so I've set up a coupon code for a birthday sale. It looks like soon I'll be able to run a proper sale in my etsy shop as tools for that have just been released, but won't be live until next week. So for now get 25% off anything in my shop through Friday with this link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TotusMel?coupon=BIRTHDAY25 or you can use the code BIRTHDAY25 at checkout like usual.

Monday, August 7, 2017

I really did mean to write here again last week, but I was yet again distracted by life. The children are back to homeschooling at the end of the month and the prep work for that has already begun which includes a myriad of issues that need dealing with. I did get a order for earring last week so I spent some time making a custom green pair and then remaking these firefly ones. It was nice to get something out in the mail to a customer, but that was about it on that front for the week. I have been selling more patterns than usual, which is nice, but since they are such small cost items, it really doesn't add much to my income.

I also worked some more on the new headpiece project. I'm really taking this one much slower than usual. I like the shapes I'm getting, but I think it needs more. The idea right now is to have it be worn with chains over and around the back of the head so I don't have to worry so much about sizing. I'm also debating whether or not it would be a good idea to use a wire base for the center part that's meant to sit up like a crown or just use stiffener. Obviously I'm got a lot more playing around with the piece before it's ready to move from the prototype phase.

I've also still been writing and reading a lot. I've broken 51,000 words now and the whole thing is starting to get a little unwieldy. At first it was easy to remember where each character was and what they'd said last time I wrote about them, now I feel slowed down as I reread what I've written to make sure I'm not contradicting myself. There's still no end in sight as I've still not worked out the resolution to many of the situations the characters have managed to get themselves into without much help from me really. This writing thing is real work, but I'm determined to finish this sucker.

Monday, July 31, 2017

I know this is shocking, but I have new tatting to share with you today. A loose idea has been percolating in my brain for a little while, but then one of my favorite people shared an image with me as inspiration and it was so close to that percolating idea that I actually started work on it.

The idea is a potential headpiece that will come down in a point across the forehead and then also down on the sides of the head with the top edge being a bit like a crown. There are a lot of details to work on on how to will be worn and how this prototype shape will be further adjusted to form the other shapes.

The shape here started with an antique edging that I twisted into a square. I've actually made up three different versions already and I think I've sussed out how to join them. The next challenge will be to modify the shape for the side sections. I'm working slowly on it, so I can keep working on all my other summer projects as well. I've reached about 45,000 words on my writing and received some wonderful and unexpected supportive messages to keep it up from a couple of people that I really respect. I can't tell you how nice it was to get those and it out a bit of a fire under me to work harder on it. Hopefully this week will see some substantial progress on my writing and my tatting. I won't say no to some orders in my etsy shop either.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

I've been lucky to get a few orders over the last week including a pair of earrings tatted in black linen thread. Someone had asked if it was harder to work with linen thread and I think I might have talked about it before, but the answer is yes, it is. Linen tends to not have a consistent width, often with little masses of fibers along the way. This not only makes double stitches less even, it also poses an issue when trying to pull the thread though the needle. Sometimes I can tug out the masses, but other times I just have to cut the thread and start with a new section. I still like using it because it produces an organic handmade feeling in the resulting piece.

I also got an order for my triforce necklace, so I spent some time remaking that for my shop. After the earrings and the linen, this was a milk run. Progress has been slow on the Armenian lace piece. I'm doing a section of small loops so it is taking roughly forever just to make it around the piece.

The week also saw my writing word count reach about 39,000 as of this morning, so I should break 40,000 today. Otherwise things have been pretty mellow around here, writing, reading, knotting, and tatting.

Oh, a couple of funny things to share this morning. I got asked late yesterday evening if I had pink or white mask available to send to a cover photo shoot for Italian Vogue occurring today and tomorrow in New York. Yeah, no. This isn't the first time I've been asked for similar things with similar time frames. I've rushed about overnighting pieces never to have them show up in print. I don't know why these magazines wait until the last minute to organize shoots, but that's always the way in my admittedly limited experience. The other funny story was a comment on this blog, that I've since deleted because it was ridiculous, congratulating the Totusmel team for being included in the top 75 landscape design blogs on the internet for some feedspot site. Yeah, landscape design...do they even look at the blog before they write the comment? Too silly. Well that's it for now.

Friday, July 21, 2017

I am going to try and write here more again. For years I felt compelled to write everyday whether I had anything to share or not. It was an unbreakable habit. Of course I did break it and once it was broken, I had a hell of a time wanting to blog at all. So the plan is to drop short notes at least twice a week at least until I have something thread based worth sharing.

Yesterday I posted this picture of my Armenian lace piece. I do work on it at least an hour or so a day when I need a break from writing. I was asked how big it was now, so I measured it and it comes to just over 3 and a half feet across. Which means I'm knotting well over 14 feet every round right now. That is incredibly crazy when you think about it particularly because each knotted round only grows one or two centimeters at a time.

I still have no end size in mind really. I could already use it for a small round end table if I wanted, but for some reason I'm holding out for the largest Armenian lace doily ever. I haven't the foggiest clue what the largest existing one measures at. I've never even tried to look for that information. So in complete ignorance of my goal size, I'm just going to go ahead and say that one day it will be the biggest.

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

My sale has been over for a bit now and I did get a few orders out of it. Even nicer was the large one I got after it. I've got a few tatted bracelets I'm remaking for the shop as well as a couple of the crochet and Armenian lace ones. As always it is wonderful to send lace off to someone who will appreciate it.

I've also been writing pretty consistently for the last few weeks. I'm up to I think 27,000 words now. If you were curious about what it exactly that I'm attempting to write, it's trying to be a novel. If I had to attach a genre to it, it would be urban fantasy or horror, but it's really not scary.I guess really it's too soon to tell what it wants to be. There are moments that I swear it's like it's writing itself, pulling me in directions I had not initially meant to go. I am also starting to understand a few things about writing that I never thought I would, like how continuity errors are born as I frantically tried to make sure changes I make are consistent throughout the 80 some odd pages I've gotten written so far.
In other news I'd like to take a moment to thank Fox for her lovely compliments on her blog the other day even if it was wrapped up with a slightly depressing thought. I fear that I do agree that tatting seems to be at bit of a stalling point. I am humbled that I ever had an impact on the art at all and now I feel a bit guiltier about my own creators block with it. I wish I had a solution or that I just suddenly felt inspired to create, but I have to concede that my inspiration has more often that not been tied up with selling pieces and knowing that someone will one day own the things I make. Since my sales have slowed to nearly nonexistent most days, making more things just seems futile as they will likely just get thrown in a storage tub never to see the light of day again.

I do hope that this lull is temporary and maybe come fall and the routine of schooling, I'll feel the need to create again. In the meantime I'll just keep creating in the ways I am inspired to do so.

Monday, July 10, 2017

I haven't had a lot of takers for my sale, but it is still on until tomorrow at least. You can get 25% off with the code SUMMER25 in my etsy shop. In the meantime I have spent my days reading and writing. I've managed to pen over 16,000 words now and I am not yet burned out, so there's a chance I might actually see this one through.

I did get a few orders in my shop including a custom order for gold and gray bleeding heart earrings and this wide cuff bracelet, whose name escapes me at the moment. So I've been tatting quite a bit too, just not as much as I wish I was.

Unfortunately I've also had a package go missing in France. It was marked as delivered, but the customer has not been able to locate it. It was likely stolen off a porch or by a carrier, so that means I need to make a new bracelet and send it off again. The worst part is that postage to Europe is ridiculously expensive so honestly it's costing me more just to send another than I got from selling it in the first place, never mind the loss of the bracelet on top of that. Insurance would have been too much on such a small order. Oh well, that's the cost of doing business when you have to rely on others to make final delivery. Luckily the customer seems patient and kind about the whole thing.

So just to recap, I'm alive, reading, writing, tatting, oh and I'm still knotting away on the Armenian lace as well. I'd really like to make a few more sales, so I may leave the sale up for another week to see if that helps. Otherwise I'll keep on working like I have been and I may try to start writing more often again. I think it might help with my other writing if I'm doing so. Time will tell.

Monday, July 3, 2017

Happy Monday morning world. So the last couple of weeks have been a bit of a slog. First there was our broken air conditioner. You might remember that it went down two Monday's ago at the beginning of a triple digit heatwave. It took nearly two weeks to have a new one installed after we found out that it was something that just couldn't be fixed. We finally got it last Thursday, unfortunately it also came with a rather sizable price tag. On top of that we also had my mother staying all last week while she transitioned to living at my sister's house. That wasn't really a big deal, but it definitely contributed to the demise of any sort of routine.

I did manage to spent some time working on the Armenian lace piece and I got one whole order in that time. I tatted up a replacement bracelet as soon as I got the order. Other than that I have been writing everyday for a week now. I'm up to about 7500 now, but it's just the beginning so no one has seen that yet. My plan is to keep writing everyday until I've managed something that could be called a novel, good or not. Only time will tell whether or not it will see the light of day.

In the meantime I'm going to offer a 25% off sale to try and get some sales and hopefully put a tiny dent in that air conditioner bill since it pretty much ate up all the savings we had. So for the next week use the code SUMMER25 in my shop to get 25% off everything and please do share. I can use all the sales I can handle right now.

Wednesday, June 21, 2017

I haven't been able to concentrate on anything yet this week, but thought I'd stop by to let you know why. Well, I live in central California and we are currently experiencing one of our triple-digit heatwaves. We have them every year, it's not all that exciting nor surprising. That being said, what makes me mention this one is that our air conditioning has failed on us. It happened Monday morning, but it took most of the day for me to figure out that out since we try not to run it too much anyway. By that point it was too late in the day to call for repair, so we slept in a 90º house.

Tuesday morning after several phone calls, I finally got on a list for repair. One company had their earliest appointment on the 30th...10 days away, ugh. I called another with a better, but still not good timeline since the heatwave has caused a serious backup at all the hvac places. So here we are about to spend a third day without the assistance of chemical cooling. It will likely be at least another day and probably hundreds of dollars before we get relief.

So apparently I cannot focus on anything when I'm this bloody hot. I mean I actually prefer the heat to the cold, but this is a bit much. I'm reading a bit, and knotting a bit, but I'm listless and lazy. I am crossing my fingers for a speedy and hopefully not too expensive repair, but bracing myself for a few more days of heat and a ridiculous bill. Too bad I haven't sold anything much in months and I definitely don't have enough creative energy right now to design anything new. Oh well, nothing much for it right now but to muddle though and muddle though I will.

Friday, June 9, 2017

Just a quick note this week to say that I am indeed still alive and kicking. It's been quite busy around here with end of the school year business, appointments, meetings, etc. I've not sat down nearly enough this week, in my opinion, but I have gotten some work in on my large Armenian lace piece. It's now at about a meter across. I also had to finally get some more thread for it as I've killed yet another ball. Of course I had to order it because no one carries size 20 thread anywhere in town.

Next week is the last one for homeschooling and should prove to be just as distracting as this one to my handicrafts. I'm personally quite looking forward to the week after and just a little bit of mindlessness. Fingers crossed.

Tuesday, May 30, 2017

Well, we had a pretty busy weekend around here. We hosted a birthday gathering for the oldest child and that of course meant cleaning and preparing food and then cleaning again. I was also quite fortunate to get another order in my etsy shop just after I wrote on Friday. This was for another pair of barefoot sandals, but a much more complex design. I worked on remaking the pair off an on throughout the weekend. Luckily due to the postal holiday I had a couple of extra days to use the existing pair as a template to get the new pair made.

On Sunday we headed out to Monterey Bay Aquarium for the day. It was the last bit of birthday celebrations and it was quite lovely out there. The weather here inland is already too hot, but the coast was a cool 60º. We also met up with my brother who lives near there and had some family time and catching up.

We had a few errands to run on our day off yesterday, but I also got another order in my shop. This time it was for a simple cuff bracelet. I happily went to work remaking that as well. I got both pieces remade by the end of the day yesterday and we're just starting our third to last week of homeschooling. There are a few more projects and tests to worry about as well as other family events coming up, more birthdays and a graduation. So I'm still pretty busy, but since some of that busy is tatting, I made time to write. I'm not sure what I'll get done this week yet, but I'm feeling a little more focused already.

Friday, May 26, 2017

Hello everyone, which is probably just a small handful of people at this point I'm guessing. Clearly I've been taking a bit of a break on the blogging. I've also been taking a bit of a break with basically everything craft related. Sales in my etsy shop have had me wondering lately if I ought to just throw in the towel with the whole endeavor. I'm not quite ready to let go yet though. I do still quite enjoy creating and that's still the best outlet for it.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've spent a lot of time on family stuff, birthdays, moving, divorces, none of those things are mine by the way. I spent a weekend cross stitching a clearance sampler kit while watching Netflix with the family. I've also spent some time with the slowly growing Armenian lace doily/tablecloth, though I haven't taken a picture of it in a while. I probably spent the most time reading actually. Well that and contemplating the idea of writing something myself. I'm not certain I have the skill set for that though.

It's also the home stretch of the homeschooling year. We have just a few weeks left and that means a lot of projects and state testing to deal with. So I guess that I just took the time off from being an artisan to focus on all these other things for a while. I did just finally get an order in my etsy shop yesterday that got me tatting again and that is likely what brought me back here as well. I finally have something tatting related to share, though to be honest it's just a pair of barefoot sandals you've seen countless times before.

So I'm hoping that I can get back into the habit of creating and blogging again soon, though I somehow doubt I'll be as consistent as I used to be. I just need to find a bit more motivation somewhere to really get back into everything. Here's hoping that it actually exists. Regardless, life is fine and I'm still making things, always making things.

Friday, May 12, 2017

I meant to write yesterday morning to show you this necklace that I made, but I got distracted by my sister-in-law going into labor. Her and my brother live quite a distance away, so we were relying on text updates and I guess that had much of my focus. The baby wasn't born until this morning by the way...it was clearly a marathon experience for them.

Back to the lace though, I added some tatting on either side of the metal ring and then finished it off with crochet chains and a macrame slide clasp. I also meant to get it listed in my shop yesterday, but the aforementioned distraction was a pretty all encompassing. I'm hoping that I can focus today among all the cleaning I have to do before this weekend. We're hosting Mother's Day at our house and since I don't want to have to clean on Sunday myself, I've got to get it done today. So here's to a productive day and a busy weekend.

Tuesday, May 9, 2017

Two days of tatting in a row, yay!I got an order early in the morning after a strange conversation thread with a different potential customer. The conversation was odd not only for the inclusion of text-speak, which I personally think should stay solely in texts, but also because I opted to answer honestly regarding whether or not a choker would slip down. I just couldn't see guaranteeing that seeing as tugging on it would definitely do that. Anyway, I think I scared that one off, but I got another order for this bracelet.

This one is my take on the hen and chicks pattern. All the chains are Victorian sets and I made it double sided. I finished remaking one for the shop while I was also finishing reading Utopia. The bracelet is in the mail to its new owner this morning. I might try to get back to the ring from yesterday later today, but I'm not sure. Whenever I do I'm sure I'll write again.

Monday, May 8, 2017

I had a nice weekend for the most part. It was Free Comic Book Day and the newest Marvel movie hit the theaters, so that's what my family spent time doing. There was a little cleaning, some planning for the future with the extended family, and bread baking.

Sunday evening I had the hankering to tat up something. I didn't have any new ideas, so I just grabbed a small ring and tatted around it. I'll probably add a little more to it today and turn it into a necklace for my shop. I'm starting to think that maybe I should spend a little time just making one-off pieces like this just to keep my tatting skills from fading away. Hopefully I can stay motivated enough to actually photograph and list them when they're made, oh and that they actually sell. That would be great. Here's hoping.

Thursday, May 4, 2017

I actually got some tatting in yesterday. I received a custom order request overnight and my lovely customer was quite responsive in the morning and we got the details worked out quickly. I did have to wait until after schooling to get to work, but it's a nice small piece so it was made up pretty quickly.

Now before you comment on the colors you should know that I can never get blues to show up in pictures the same shade as they actually appear. These are both Lizbeth colors and the blue is dark ocean teal. It's definitely darker and a bit greener than it appears here. Luckily I can use the swatch pictures from Handy Hands to show customers because I fear that they would be put out by the color in person if they were expecting it just like this. The green is pretty close to accurate though it's not the order, just the piece I was using to remember the pattern.

So that's it for now. I am still working on the giant doily and there are some pet rat issues we're dealing with, so it's been a long week already. It's been hot all week and I'm hoping for some nice uneventful time soon.

Friday, April 28, 2017

I've been spending an inordinate amount of time playing the newest Zelda game, Breath of the Wild. That is my excuse for my current lack of focus. I haven't been playing all day long of course but so much of it that I've done little else worth documenting. It has been quite fun having the entire family playing the same game even if it has taken the place of any other activities.

During my downtime I've been baking more bread, working on the yard, and catching up on television shows. If it wasn't for that last thing I would have nothing to show you at all, but whenever my hands are free, I'm still knotting away on this enormous piece. It's still growing rather slowly since each round is just so long, but it's giving me something at least slightly interesting to do.

Monday, April 24, 2017

We had a busy weekend around here. The lovely weather inspired much cleaning and yard work. Flowers were planted and shelves assembled. Cleaning then led to pulling out, cleaning, and hooking up vintage video game systems. We baked more bread and spent some time cleaning up the kitchen a bit as well. I don't think I had time to tie a single knot.

This week will likely see more cleaning and more yard work as the weather after today looks like it will be lovely as well. Other than that there are no real plans for the week. I think I should be able to work on patterns soon, but I've got no timeline on them. Right now I'm thinking the next couple of weeks...only time will tell.

Thursday, April 20, 2017

So guess what I completely forgot about yesterday? It was my 11th anniversary selling on Etsy. So to recap, this year I have already forgotten about International Tatting Day and now my Etsyversary. I had my vacation to blame for the first one, but I've got no reason to have forgotten the second. The only reason I even know that I forgot it was in my Facebook memory feed.

I'm not sure what my issue is here, but clearly I'm off kilter somehow. I'm sure I can find several things to blame, but right now I'm just hoping that this isn't the start of a downward memory spiral. So here's to paying a little more attention to the date.

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

So I think that I might start just writing if I actually did anything worth noting the day before. I've been getting up later in the morning and using the time I have to workout which is getting more necessary as I get older I think. You don't really want to hear about the days where I did nothing but schooling the kids and reading the afternoon away anyway.

Over the weekend I pulled my bread machine out of retirement, so I've been making bread. Nothing too interesting, just sourdough because it's my favorite. I also got some knotting time in yesterday. I think that I'm going to do several rounds of these points. I hadn't worked any of them in this piece and I'm not bored of them yet.

I'm also contemplating writing up more of my patterns to list in my etsy shop soon. Sales have been glacial and my creativity has been seriously lacking lately. I am always hesitant to list patterns as it can cannibalize my own work, but I've got to do something to make a little money. So if there are any designs that you've been hankering for, please do let me know.

Monday, April 17, 2017

I started out the weekend with a bracelet sale, so I had this piece to remake and get in the mail. The rest of the weekend was cleaning, binge watching some television, and a last minute holiday dinner. We don't generally bother with Easter dinner, but this year we used it as an excuse to get together with family. Yesterday was packed with cooking, eating and game playing.

There are no plans for the week ahead. I'd love to get some yard work in, but I don't think that the weather is going to cooperate with that. Instead I will likely fall back on reading and knotting. I know, exciting as always.

Friday, April 14, 2017

I know this is shocking, but I again spent the day after schooling engaged in reading, knotting, and other less than exciting activities. So here's a picture of an upside down sleeping cat to make up for yet another pointless blog post. maybe something interesting will happen over the weekend. Hey, weirder things have happened, right?

Thursday, April 13, 2017

I actually got an order yesterday, so there was tatting during the day. That was, of course, alongside my now usual reading and knotting. I managed to finish remaking the necklace that sold. I guess I was excited to be working so I sped through it. I still need to add the hardware so I can pop it in the mail this morning. I probably should have slowed down a bit so I could savor the moment, but alas I start today with nothing but books to read and knots to make.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

Yesterday after schooling was more reading, more knotting, and a little video game playing. Not much else occurred, I'm afraid. Oh wait, there was exciting loads of laundry as well. I think I've reached that waiting for inspiration to hit point. So I'm just waiting for a lightning bolt while I read and knot and take care of the day to day.

Tuesday, April 11, 2017

Well, I'm writing though I have little to share. Yesterday had the last in that series of routine distributive appointments I mentioned in my last post. So today it should be back to what I call normal. Not that that means I'll get anything worth sharing done. I did get a little work done on the knotted lace, but no new pictures since the progress is pretty hard to detect day to day. I think I'll just make this a short post and end with fingers crossed that something happens in my etsy shop to keep me busy soon.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Wow, I just cannot get back into a proper routine over here. There have been teacher meetings, vet appointments, and birthday parties conspiring to keep me off kilter. I should be getting back to even soon though. It's another month before the next family birthday and school testing when I should be thrown yet again. Until then though I will try to get my act together and at least blog like I'm suppose to.
As you might have guessed the weekend was busy and not really with any sort of creative endeavors. I have made a little more progress on the large Armenian lace piece. It's now officially 3 feet across. Of course that last inch took what, a week, longer. I don't even know. Here's hoping I can keep focused and get some work done this week or at least remember to write about the work I didn't get done.

Thursday, April 6, 2017

I've been changing up my routine since getting back from our vacation and clearly I've hit a few bumps. The cats were forced to take their morning meal later and the result was that they let me sleep in quite a lot the first mornings we were back. I decided to roll back my wake-up time a bit and see if it would work. The plan was to work out early, but blog during or just before I started schooling for the day and guess what, yeah I forgot to do it yesterday.

So, I'm going to wrap the last two days worth into one here. I remade these tatted and knotted earrings on Tuesday. I also spent some time with the doily turned table cloth. Yesterday was a laundry and yard work kind of day. The yard work is why I'm writing early again. I pulled something in the my legs, as usual, so I'm not working out this morning. I'm letting my body heal a bit I think. I didn't even do all that much yard work, but apparently it was just enough to cause pain. I also spent quite a lot of time on the Armenian lace. Of course progress is stupid slow at this size, but I'm not quite sick of it yet. Someone asked how long I had worked on this so I went back to figure it out. It was about four months of work before I put it away from fatigue, but that was about a year ago. I'm still convinced that it will never be finished.

Tuesday, April 4, 2017

We had one last day of Spring Break with the kids yesterday and it was my youngest daughter's birthday. We spent the day adventuring on her direction and mostly ate too much. We're back to schooling today and back to work as well. I got an earring order yesterday, so I have at least those to make today. Not much else so I'll leave you with a photo of me and the birthday girl during our recent trip to Red Rock.

Monday, April 3, 2017

Happy Monday back all! I clearly lost track of time on my trip and blogging fell away quickly. We had a wonderful time with wonderful friends. We got to experience a sand storm worthy of an emergency alert at the same time as a chocolate tasting. We visited a butterfly habitat and a pinball museum. There was hiking, sort of, and shopping, just a bit. It was a busy week of adventuring.

That brings me to an apology and a confession. I'm sorry I completely forgot about International Tatting Day this year. Yep clean forgot it even existed until yesterday when someone asked if they missed my pattern this year...oops. I was so focused on prepping for this trip and the youngest daughter's birthday, that I just let it slip my mind completely. Of course I must also confess that it's been increasingly less popular every year for me. Both the patterns and the sale pendant barely sold last year, so I fear it was only a very few that missed it this time around. Yeah, I'm not sure right now whether I'll try again next year or not. Maybe I'll get to work on something soon and just release it at a randomly selected time. I guess only time will tell.

Now before I go, here's the progress I made on the Armenian lace doily while I was away. I might have been vacationing, but I still love keeping my hand busy while I relax. It's at about 35 inches across now which I prefer to think of as almost 3 feet because it sounds bigger somehow. No, there is no end in sight.

Tuesday, March 28, 2017

First full day of our vacation took us to Red Rock Canyon just outside of Las Vegas. It looked to be a lovely day and it was save for the shading clouds above and the cold wind that we were not expecting and thus did not really dress for. We only took a short walk off the driving trail to see the petroglyphs on one on the the rock faces. Then there was a bit of food adventure followed by a quiet evening in when I even managed to get a little knotting in. Day two starts in a few hours so now it's time for coffee.

Monday, March 27, 2017

Good Monday morning all. I'm actually off on a family adventure right now visiting friends. I know it's hard to tell since it's still ridiculously early, but I slept in for a couple of hours even. I had to put my etsy shop in vacation mode since I won't be close enough to home to ship anything and there is no convenient way to just leave the patterns up for sale. I'll try to keep dropping notes here all week, but I may have little of interest to say. This is just a photo of part of the drive, which was long, but lovely...in parts.

Friday, March 24, 2017

Another day, another round of knots. Also, lots of reading, catching up with TV shows and video game playing. Oh, and a half an hour on the phone with the credit card company because of some fraudulent charges that needed to be reported and cleared up. That was super fun. There's not much else I'm afraid though. So I'll just leave you with this pile of lace picture and get on with what is likely a repeat of yesterday, hopefully without the phone call part.

Thursday, March 23, 2017

Again, I didn't even finish a whole new round on the Armenian lace piece. It's just too big around now. Well, it's that and my newfound Zelda distraction that is seriously hampering my ability to do anything else. I swear to you that if I had pieces that needed making, I would put down the game and get to work, but since I don't, I'm clearly not. I'm still managing to carve out some reading and knotting time though so I guess I haven't completely lost reality.

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

We certainly had an interesting weather day for central California. We had a tornado warning followed by a short, but aggressive thunderstorm. That was in turn quickly followed by a clear sky as if none of it had ever happened. We could see the swirling clouds nearby just before the thunderstorm hit, but it never got close enough to us to cause any real concern. It was definitely different though.

When we weren't wondering how to hide from a tornado when no one has a basement around here, I was reading and knotting. I still haven't even finished this large loop round yet. I think I'm going to go with another section of basket stitch, or maybe points. The end is nowhere in sight, so probably both.

Tuesday, March 21, 2017

Let's see, there was schooling followed by an afternoon of not much. I had laundry to do then there was again hours of playing the Zelda game and hours of reading and knotting. That's really all of it in a nutshell. It is also likely all of today. I should lay the piece out and see how big across it is now. It likely hasn't grown much since I started again, but I don't remember how big I left it at either and it will give me a new starting point from which I can feel like I'm not making any progress.

Monday, March 20, 2017

On Friday I got a small custom order for a wonderful repeat customer. She uses my tatting in her own work. This time she needed a few hearts made in navy thread, so that was my afternoon. It was lovely to be tatting for someone else again, even if just for an hour or so. The order is of course already done and in the post.

The rest of the weekend was errands and binging Iron Fist on Netflix. My hands got incredibly restless without a project to keep them busy while watching, so I found something to do. Do you guys remember this? I almost didn't. I worked on it forever and then as the circumference grew and progress slowed to a nearly immeasurable crawl, I put it away. Well, it's out again now and it should be perfect to keep me busy when needed since it's likely to never actually be finished.

Friday, March 17, 2017

Well, I didn't get any sales, but I was drafted for a task. My mother-in-law wanted to learn how to make these tiny crochet Easter baskets that she saw online. So I was linked to the pattern on pintrest and I made a few. She came over in the afternoon and I attempted to show her how to get them started. They use the magic ring method for the center, so teaching that was a bit of a challenge. It should be noted that she eventually got it, after much frustration and cursing, her, not me. She is also an avid knitter, just not so much with crochet. That was pretty much my day and now I have tiny baskets that the oldest daughter has decided are for the rat. I guess I'm glad they're good for something other than keeping me busy for the day.

Thursday, March 16, 2017

I had just enough yarn left over from the blanket and booties to make a matching hat. So, here's the whole gift combination made just in time to send off for the baby shower. Finishing all of this does put me right back into the 'nothing to make' limbo though. I suppose I'll think of something. My thumb doesn't hurt anymore, but I'm still staying away from the tiny steel crochet hooks for awhile. Here's hoping for a sale, that's not a pattern, so I have something that needs making sooner rather than later.

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

I managed to create something yesterday despite my utter lack of creativity lately. I used some of the yarn left over from the baby blanket to add some booties to the gift for my brother and sister-in-law. I know I said I wouldn't touch a crochet hook, but these used a much larger and much less pointy one, so it was fine.

Today I plan on seeing if I have enough yarn to add a hat as well. If not I'll likely make another pair of booties in the gray yarn. See, I can still create things. I'm still holding out for a sale or a lace idea though.